Military Terms

Most units in the field were
between 20% to 40% of their full strength. When a company was recruited it
contained 100 men. However, by the company reached the
army the unit would be down to around 60. Casualties after the first battle
would lower the
size to around 40. Also, unlike today's military, replacements were not
added to existing units.

Infantry were the largest military force during the Civil War. They
were responsible for seizing and holding ground. The
basic infantry tactic was to rapidly move men to a position where they
could direct their fire on an enemy target. This
tactic was based the slow firing muzzle-loading muskets that were
capable of being loaded and fired a maximum of three times a minute.
Therefore to produce concentrated fire power the infantrymen had to move and shoot
together. The individual soldier could affect the battlefield by combining his fire
with that of other infantrymen. Although spreading out made them less
vulnerable, infantrymen very quickly lost the ability to combine their
fire effectively if they did so. Even more critically, their officers
rapidly lost the ability to control them.

The regiment, consisting of 300-600 men, was considered the
smallest tactical unit on the battlefield. In order to move as a unit, its
members had to be able to understand and carry out the spoken orders of
their colonel and subordinate officers. Unfortunately, in the noise and
confusion of battle only a few soldiers could actually hear any given
command and most of the regiment carried out their orders by conforming to
the movements of the men immediately around them. Maintaining "touch of
elbows“ via the prescribed close interval was indispensable for this crude
but vital system to work. In addition, infantrymen were trained to "follow
the flag" and the unit and national colors were always conspicuously placed
in the front and center of each regiment. Thus, when in doubt as to what
maneuver the regiment was trying to carry out, soldiers could look to see
the direction in which the colors were moving. That is one major reason why
the post of color bearer was given to the bravest men in the unit. It was
not just an honor; it was insurance that the colors would always move in the
direction desired by the colonel. Regiments typically moved in a column
formation, four men abreast, en route to a battle area. This was an
efficient way of moving troops to a battlefield location. Once in position,
the regiment would change from this column to line of battle to maximize
firepower. Regiments attacked the enemy by moving in a line of battle
composed of a front and rear line.

Attacking
units rarely "charged" in the sense of running full-tilt toward the enemy;
such a maneuver would promptly destroy the formation as faster men
outstripped slower ones and everyone spread out. Instead a regiment using
orthodox tactics would typically step off on an attack moving at a "quick
time" rate of 110 steps per minute (at which rate it would cover about 85
yards per minute). Once under serious fire the rate of advance might be
increased to a so-called "double-quick time" of 165 steps per minute (about
150 yards per minute).

Only
when the regiment was within a few dozen yards of the defending line would
the regiment be ordered to advance at a "run" (a very rapid pace but still
not a sprint). Thus a regiment might easily take about ten minutes to
"charge" 1,000 yards, even if it did not pause for re-alignment or execute
any further maneuvers en route. In theory an attacking unit would not stop
until it reached the enemy line, if then. The idea was to force back the
defenders through the size, momentum,
and shock effect of the attacking column. (Fixed bayonets were considered
indispensable for maximizing the desired shock effect). In reality, however,
the firepower of the defense eventually led most Civil War regiments to stop
and return the fire--often at ranges of less than 100 yards. And very often
the "charge" would turn into a stand-up fire fight at murderously short
range, until one side or the other gave way.

Frontal Assault
- The tactic of frontal assault is a direct, hostile movement of forces
towards enemy forces in a large number, in an attempt to overwhelm the
enemy. This style of combat was used heavily in the Civil War. The
type of militaries used as well as the terrain lent themselves to direct
frontal assault, and most of the battles of the Civil War were fought in
this manner. However, this style of combat was rapidly becoming
out-classed due to the increased accuracy of rifles.
Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg demonstrated just how disastrous
frontal assaults against fortified positions could be.

Flanking - A
flank attack is to attack an enemy or an enemy unit from the side. There are several variations to this basic military tactic.
One type is employed in an ambush, where a friendly unit performs a
surprise attack from a concealed position. Other units may be hidden to
the sides of the ambush site to surround the enemy. Another type is
used in the attack, where a unit encounters an enemy defensive position.
Upon receiving fire from the enemy, the unit commander may decide to order
a flank attack. Part of the attacking unit "fixes" the enemy with
suppressive fire, preventing them from returning fire, retreating or
changing position to meet the flank attack. The flanking force then
advances to the enemy flank and attacks them at close range. The
most effective form of flanking maneuver is the double envelopment, which
involves simultaneous flank attacks on both sides of the enemy. This
tactic was used extensively in the Civil War as commanders tried to
outflank their opponent and bring concentrated fire or enfilade the
enemy by firing along the long axis of the unit. For instance, a trench is
enfiladed if the enemy can fire down the length of the trench.

Skirmish - Skirmishers are infantry or
cavalry soldiers stationed ahead or alongside of a larger body of friendly
troops. They are usually placed in a skirmish line to either harass enemy
troops or to protect their own troops from similar attacks by the enemy.
During the Civil War it was common for cavalrymen to dismount and
form a skirmish line in order to delay enemy troops advancing towards an
objective. One example is the actions of the Federal cavalrymen on
the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

The
artillery was the second most important unit on most battlefields. Artillery's
primary mission was to fortify defensive positions. Cannon fire could
break up an infantry attack or dissuade enemy infantry from attacking in the
first place.
With long-range shells and close-in canister, artillery became
crucial in repulsing enemy attacks. But long-range shelling to support ones
own attack had minimal effect, and artillery assaults were soon abandoned as
suicidal. Throughout, artillery depended almost entirely on direct fire
against visible targets. Its mere presence could also
reassure friendly infantry and so exert a moral effect that might be as
important as its physical effect on the enemy.

The battery was the basic
artillery unit and consisted of a group of between 4 and 6 fieldpieces
commanded by a captain. Early in the war, batteries
were attached to infantry brigades. Eventually, artillery was found be
most effective when grouped together. Both armies maintained extensive concentrations of
artillery at corps-level or higher --- 1 battalion assigned to a
Confederate infantry division and 1 brigade to a Federal infantry corps.

Coordinating the fire of twenty or
thirty guns on a single target was not unusual, and occasionally (as in
the bombardment that preceded Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg)
concentrations of well over hundred guns might be achieved. In fact, however, Civil
War artillery was quite modern in two respects. First, advances in
metallurgy had resulted in cannon barrels that were much lighter than
their predecessors but strong enough to contain more powerful charges.
Thus, whereas the typical fieldpiece of the Napoleonic era fired a
6-pound round, the typical Civil War era fieldpiece fired a round double
that size, with no loss in ease of handling. Second, recent improvements
had resulted in the development of practical rifled fieldpieces that had
significantly greater range and accuracy than their smoothbore
counterparts. Civil War fieldpieces
could fire a variety of shell types, each with its own preferred usage.
Solid
shot was considered best for battering down structures and for use
against massed troops (a single round could sometimes knock down several
men like ten pins). Shell--rounds
that contained an explosive charge and burst into fragments when touched
off by a time fuse--were used to set buildings afire or to attack troops
behind earthworks or under cover. Spherical
case was similar to shell except that each round contained musket balls
(78 in the case of a 12-pound shot, 38 for a 6-pound shot); it was used
against bodies of troops moving in the open at ranges of from 500 to
1,500 yards. At
ranges of below 500 yards, the round of choice was canister, essentially
a metal can containing about 27 cast-iron balls, each 1.5 inches in
diameter. As soon as a canister round was fired, the sides of the can
would rip away and the cast-iron balls would fly directly into the
attacking infantry. In desperate situations double and sometimes even
triple charges of canister were used. In theory the greater
range and accuracy of rifled cannon might have offset this a bit, but
rifled cannon fired comparatively small shells of limited effectiveness
against infantry at a distance. The preferred use of artillery on the
offensive was therefore not against infantry but against other
artillery--what was termed "counterbattery work." The idea was to
mass one's own cannon against a few of the enemy's cannon and systematically
fire so as to kill the enemy's artillerists and dismount his fieldpieces.

Cavalry
composed about 8 to 10%
of Civil War armies. The
expense of maintaining the cavalryman’s horse was a large factor in the
limited use of cavalry. A
single horse could cost ten times the monthly pay of a private and
required saddles, bridles, stirrups, and other gear and specialized
clothing and equipment for the rider. Horses
required about 26 pounds of feed and forage per day, many times the
requirement of an infantryman. Remounts
were needed to replace worn-out horses. More
training was required to make an effective cavalryman than an effective
infantryman.

Military
experts believed that the
heavily-wooded terrain of America would limit opportunities to use
cavalry on the battlefield. Therefore, cavalry was
mainly used for scouting and raiding. During
major engagements cavalry’s mission was to screen the flanks and control
the rear areas. By 1863, however, the
North was beginning to create cavalry forces sufficiently numerous and
well-armed to play a significant role on the battlefield. At Gettysburg,
for example, Union cavalrymen armed with rapid-fire, breach-loading carbines
were able to hold a Confederate infantry division at bay for several hours.

At
Cedar Creek in 1864 a massed cavalry charge late in the day completed the
ruin of the Confederate army, and during the Appomattox Campaign in 1865
Federal cavalry played a decisive role in bringing Lee's retreating army to
bay and forcing its surrender.